SADDAM HUSSEIN EXECUTED

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - "The tyrant has fallen," a witness shouted
after Saddam Hussein dropped through the trap door of the gallows, his neck
broken in an instant by the rope moments after exchanging sectarian taunts with
onlookers.

Grainy footage of the execution, apparently shot on a mobile
phone by a witness who was standing below looking up at the gallows, was
circulating widely on the Internet on Sunday, a day after Saddam was hanged for
crimes against humanity.

As the hangmen prepare him for his final moment, some of those invited to attend
standing below the platform taunted the former president, who was executed on
Saturday before dawn.

One man shouts "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada," a reference to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr,
who heads a powerful Shi'ite political movement and a militia blamed by
Washington and Sunni Arabs for running death squads targeting Saddam's Sunni
Arab minority.

Saddam, the noose around his neck, appears to smile and shoot back: "Is this
what you call manhood?"

Another onlooker, despite pleas from another for witnesses to observe the
proprieties, yells: "Go to hell!" and Saddam, seemingly accusing his enemies of
destroying the nation he once led, replies: "The hell that is
Iraq?"

The sound was muffled and at times indistinct, leading some who initially heard
low-quality versions of the video to conclude Saddam had made rather different
comments.

Another voice can be heard shouting "Long live Mohammed Bakr al-Sadr,"
referring to a relative of Moqtada al-Sadr killed in the 1980s.

Though Sadr's movement is a major force in the coalition government of
Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the outspoken comments by his supporters
in the execution chamber may fuel charges by Saddam's defense lawyers and his
supporters in Iraq and the wider Arab world that the process has been "victors'
justice."

The video, lasting about two-and-a-half minutes, shows Saddam drop through
the trap door while still intoning the Muslim profession of faith. He was
abruptly cut off in the second verse: "I bear witness that Mohammad..."

After he falls, the cry "The tyrant has fallen" is audible over shouting and
other comments that could not be made out.

The video bore out witness comments that the 69-year-old former leader, who
looked calm and composed as he stood on the gallows in an official video
broadcast on Saturday, had shouted angry political slogans while masked guards
were bringing him into the execution chamber once used by his own feared
intelligence services.

Toward the end of the film, Saddam's body is shown swinging, eyes partly open
and the neck bent almost at right angles to one side. The film is punctuated by
flashes, apparently as witnesses took photographs.